Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Yes, that's a real sign that's now up on University Parkway in Winston-Salem, NC (where I live). I had it printed over the weekend and finally had time to put it up this morning.

I also sent out a release for Psychoboy's online campaign this morning. Yes! Weekly already put a write up of it on their site. If you have a news site of any sort feel free to put it up. Any suggestions on other places to send it are welcome...

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 29, 2014

CONTACT: Todd Luck, (336) 392-0837, rtluck75@yahoo.com

Mock ‘Elect Psychoboy’ Campaign Spoofs Midterms

WINSTON-SALEM, NC- A mock political campaign by comic book character Psychoboy is showing just how crazy the midterm election can be.

Psychoboy is a character in College Follies, a digital comedy comic book series by comic creator Todd Luck. College Follies #4 tells the story of Psychoboy's bid for Congress, showing everything from pandering town halls to him stealing the campaign signs of other local candidates. But the comic is only part of the story, as Luck created a virtual campaign for Psychoboy that includes a website, social media posts, YouTube videos and even a real life campaign sign that sits along University Parkway in Winston-Salem.

“I wrote issue four before the midterm season really got going, so Psychoboy’s online campaign lets me make fun of things happening now,” said Luck.

Psychoboy’s posts on social media sites Facebook, Twitter and Google+ include mock fundraiser announcements like one for Bazookas & Booze, making light of NC Senate Candidate Molotov Mitchell’s recent Bullets & Bourbon fundraiser. His frequent online campaign signs feature slogans like “Elect Psychoboy or you’ll get Ebola” and “Elect Psychoboy because he knows as little as you do.”

His campaign site, electpsychoboy.com, also touts the fictional candidate's lack of substance and qualifications.

“Psychoboy has never served in politics before,” his bio reads. “He knows nothing about government and is only vaguely aware there is a Congress. This makes him the perfect candidate for our time.”

Luck said Psychoboy’s daily social media posts will continue through Election Day. While he said he hopes the virtual campaign gets people to buy College Follies #4, now available on digital comic sites Amusedom.com and DriveThruComics.com, he also hopes that it encourages people to vote in what he says is a very important midterm election.

So above is my all-time favorite video I've done. Heck, one of my favorite things I've done, period. This ad actually appears for one panel in College Follies #4, so it's really awesome to have the advertisement exist in it's entirety for real. Again, I love being able to flesh out the story in the issue with Psychoboy's virtual online campaign.

So this ad is inspired by a longstanding joke I've had that politics often becomes the art of liking the most generic universally, loved thing you can find, basically running on a platform of liking fuzzy animals. The kitten specifically was chosen because of the incident in the New York mayoral race where there was a minor controversy over if the subway system should've shut down to get some kittens off the track. Yes, there were literally candidates trying to outdo each other over their love of kittens. You can't make this stuff up.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

I just got two emails from ComiXology this morning on College Folllies #3 and #4....they've both been approved!

So others who submitted to ComiXology had experienced a significant acceleration in turnaround time on subsequent issues of their series and apparently that's finally happening for me! It took 6 months to get issue one approved and more than three months to get issue two approved. Issue three was submitted three months, so that's only a slight improvement. But issue four was submitted less than three weeks ago, so it was approved in under a month!!!

This is great news since issue three, a Power Ranger parody, should come out in November, which is when the final episodes of the current 20th anniversary season of Power Rangers are being shown. And issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, should be out before year's end on ComiXology!

Monday, October 27, 2014

I'll be posting at least once a day for the next two weeks on Psychoboy's social media campaign. Having Psychoboy run for Congress during the midterm election season was always been my goal. This has been an awesome experience, creating his posts and telling the tale online alongside the story in College Follies #4 which is out now (click here to get it). The only thing that's missing is more people to interact with and share his posts.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

This is a press release on the series I sent out to local papers last week. The short and long versions of it are below. If you're a comic news site (or any other type of news publication) feel free to take and run either one with any pics you need off my site. If anyone has advice on entertainment or comic sites that cover indi comics that I could send this to, let me know.

Press Release (full version)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 24, 2014

Funny Books Get Digital

College Follies is among a growing number of comic books going digital

College Follies has gone from an unknown comic book series with a single issue printed in 2000 to a digital comic distributed worldwide, thanks to changing technology.

College Follies, touted as an “An epic parody of life itself,” was created by Todd Luck back in the late 1990s while he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A lover of the comic book medium, he dreamed of one day breaking into the comic industry. The comedy series was one of many concepts he wrote plots for in his spare time. For a senior art project, he wrote and drew one issue of it. He had 50 copies printed at a local copy shop in 2000.

“I printed up some copies to send to comic publishers to see if they’d pick it up,” said Luck, “I also tried to sell them at local comic shops and the Heroes Convention in Charlotte. Unfortunately, no one picked it up and few bought it.”

Luck stopped work on the comic while drawing the series’ second story in 2000. He said he had few options. Printing was out of his price range, as was the high tech tools to scan in, letter and prepare the pages for print. Without a comic publisher to pick it up, he had no way to distribute it.

Luck stopped drawing comics for years, but in 2013 he decided to look into the possibility of producing a comic again. He found a lot had changed.

“There’s been a democratization of publishing with new technology,” he said. “Anyone can create and distribute content online for little or no cost. You can send comics to printers anywhere in the world to get the best price for print comics.”

Luck, who now resides in Winston-Salem, NC, said new technology allowed him to fix everything that was wrong with the first issue in 2000. He said his inking was crude, made more so by the distortions from scanning and compressing the art with the software of the time. The printing was equally crude and expensive. Even printed in black and white on copy paper, it cost $3 per copy to print, not a good thing when $3 was the standard price comics sold for.

Last year, he used the graphics program Photoshop to clean up his inks, color the comic and create the highest quality version of it possible. Using internet sites Amusedom.com and DriveThruComics.com, he was able to transform his work into digital comics anyone in the world could buy. The digital distribution costs nothing up front and the sites only take a percentage of the sales he makes. Even getting copies printed to sale at conventions cost him a fraction of what it used to, with 25 color copies of the first issue on high quality paper costing him a little over $2 a pop.

But the biggest boon was the shot at ComiXology, the net’s biggest digital comic distributor, with comics that can read be online and on mobile apps. Through ComiXology Submit, Luck submitted the new, color College Follies #1, and after eight months, it was accepted and available through ComiXology.

“That was a great moment when I got that acceptance email,” he said. “I’d been waiting for something like that my whole life.”

While he said the first issue was greatly improved, one thing he didn't touch was the story. College Follies #1 stars a college student named Stickboy who goes home to visit his family and his best friend Psychoboy after a school shooting has gripped the country in fear and paranoia. Based on the reaction to the Columbine shootings of the late 90s, the issue takes readers back to a time before “active shooter” became part of the national vocabulary, when Chris Matthews and Geraldo Rivera were both on CNBC airing a string of guests using the tragedy to tout their own agendas. It was a time when there was calls to pull the new hit movie "The Matrix" as a result of the shooting.

“It’s a comic book time capsule,” Luck said. “It represents where the country, the culture and myself were at the time.”

The second issue, which was finally completed this year, came out October 8 on Comixology. The slice-of-life short story revolves around rumors caused by Stickboy walking his ex-girlfriend to her car. Luck said it felt good to finally have that second story done and to move on to new material.

Issue three, a Power Ranger parody, and issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, are both out on Amusedom and DriveThruComics, and should be out on ComiXology in the next several months.

For more information on College Follies, visit www.collegefollies.com.

###

Press Release (short version)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 24, 2014

New Comic Series Lampoons Life Itself

Fourteen years in the making, College Follies, is a digital comic series exploring everything from media hyped shootings to the consequence of hanging around an ex.

College Follies, touted as an “An epic parody of life itself,” was created by Todd Luck, a Winston-Salem, NC resident, back in the late 1990s when he was a college student. When the series wasn't picked up by comic publishers in 2000, he shelved it. With the advent of digital comics, Luck decided to give it another go beginning last year, completing the first two stories for digital distribution. Both are now on sale on ComiXology, the net’s biggest digital comic distributor, with comics that can be read online and on mobile apps.

College Follies #1 stars a college student named Stickboy who goes home to visit his family and his best friend Psychoboy after a school shooting has gripped the country in fear and paranoia. Based on the reaction to the Columbine shootings of the late 90s, the issue takes readers back to a time before “active shooter” became part of the national vocabulary, when Chris Matthews and Geraldo Rivera were both on CNBC airing a string of guests using the tragedy to tout their own agendas. It was a time when there was calls to pull the new hit movie "The Matrix" as a result of the shooting.

“It’s a comic book time capsule,” Luck said. “It represents where the country, the culture and myself were at the time.”

The second issue is a slice-of-life story that revolves around rumors caused by Stickboy walking his ex-girlfriend to her car.

Issue three, a Power Ranger parody, and issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, are both out on digital comic sites Amusedom.com and DriveThruComics.com, and should be out on ComiXology in the next several months.

For more information on College Follies, visit www.collegefollies.com.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Ladies and Gentleman, College Follies #4 is out now! It's an 8 page yarn about Psychoboy's epic campaign for Congress! Plus, there's an exclusive editorial in the back by Psychoboy himself! All this for only 99 cent!

Click here to get it as a downloadable PDF on DriveThruComics. Click here to get the regular cover as a digital comic on Amusedom and click here to get the nifty digital variant cover (available only on Amusedom).

Psychoboy's online campaign will continue for a couple more weeks. Check out his site, electpsychoboy.com and also look for all the terrific nonsense he's been posting on social media. The best is yet to come as I'll be working on short video ads for Psycho's campaign! Not to spoil too much, but they involve kittens and post-apocalyptic hellscapes!

For the last year it's been my goal to get this issue out before election day. My day job has not made that an easy goal, but it's one I've accomplished with a lot of work and perseverance.

This issue has been submitted to Comixology, which probably won't get it up before next year. It'll be printed up for NC Comicon next month. I plan to make print copies available shortly after that online. They'll be a dollar more than the digital comics, plus shipping fees.

I'll got into what's next for me and the series later, but right now enjoy Psychoboy's election madness. The campaign trail is long, but the destination is totally worth it.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

College Follies #4 is done and has been uploaded to both DriveThruComics and Amusedom. It'll be available on both sites on Wednesday! It's not as early in the month as I'd hoped, but you'll still be able to read all about Psychoboy's campaign before Election Day.

It's been submitted to ComiXology too, but their review process takes months, so don't expect to get it on there too soon. I'll be sending it to the printer in the next week or two, so it'll be printed for NC Comicon in November.

Psychoboy will continue posting for the next couple weeks as the election season heats up, so be sure to check out electpsychoboy.com and follow him on social media!

Now that College Follies #2 is out on ComiXology, I finally got a chance to sit down and go through the guided view of the comic and record the Creator's Commentary video. Just like with issue one, it's exclusively for those who bought the issue, it doesn't matter what format you got it in (print, Amusedom, DriveThruComics or ComiXology) just as long as you have a version of it. So if you've bought issue two, let me know, and I'll shoot you the link to the video. If you haven't gotten issue two yet, what are you waiting on? It's only 99 cent. You can click here to get it.

And if you've got issue one, let me know, and I'll shoot you the link to that issue's commentary too.

Friday, October 17, 2014

I finished the final page of issue four's story yesterday. I can't show you much in the way of dialog without spoiling things, so here's a panel without the lettering...

Well, I can at least show you this cropped panel of Stickboy with dialog...

Yup that pretty much sums it up.

I also finished up the letter column, which will features an editorial by Psychoboy himself. It also features a teaser for issue five. I can't show you either of those right now. But I can at least show how cool the header looks with a purple background...

So, what can I tell you?

Well, now that I've completed work on the issue, all I have left to do is proof it and upload it, which I'll do this weekend. So I'm officially announcing that issue four will be available this Wednesday, October 22, for 99 cent on both Amusedom and DriveThruComics!

It's been a long journey to get here. I just got to go a little bit more and I'm done!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Finished page seven over the weekend. Only one more page left in the story.

I'm going to show some panels without lettering so as not to spoil the ending...

Yup, it's Chris Matthews on Hardball again. I did a panel of him in issue one from the late 90s so taking another stab at the likeness while capturing the look of the modern show was a thrill. The pic of Psychoboy is from his announcement that he's running for office off social media.

Here we do a reveal that Psycho is the one watching the broadcast. Now, originally I had just planned for Stickboy and Psychoboy to stand there and talk after that and then for Psycho to make a speech on the next page. But I realized I needed to establish the stage, the crowd, where Stickboy was, etc for the speech. So I used the same dialog but instead did this...

I basically have a couple panels showing them walking from the green room to the podium. It's actually a little more natural this way and a bit more interesting than them standing there talking. Plus I love that panel.

And one last panel, this one doesn't have much dialog so I can show it without spoiling anything...

So the last page should be done this week and I'll have the letter column done by the weekend. I'm tentatively planning for a release next week, but I want to get a little further in before I announce anything concrete.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

I did the title page for issue four yesterday. It's basically a shot of Psychoboy's campaign signs I printed up for conventions. I'm not sure how easy it is to make out, but the title itself is on a napkin, which is a West Wing reference. The last sentence of the legal fine print at the bottom has a joke I slipped in, so give that a read.

Page seven is also done. I'll post panels from that in the next couple days. I'm working on the final page of the story today. It's a flurry of activity as I finish up issue four!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

College Follies #2 is now out on ComiXology! ComiXology's digital comics features single page, double page and guided view. It can be read either online or on a mobile device, just in case you want to read a story set in a Super Happy-Mart while standing in line at the real thing. You can own this anti-romantic comedy now for only 99 cent! Click here to get it!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

The great thing about this story is pretty much every new page is my favorite. Page six, which shows the campaign montage, is no exception...

This panel is inspired by the keg parties put on by a group that was against the Affordable Care Act. They literally threw drunken college parties to encourage students to not sign up for health insurance. Admittedly "Intoxicate the Vote" seems kind of sane by comparison. Sometimes, even Psychoboy can't compete with real life crazies

And this panel...yeah, that was A LOT of work on the lettering. I decided to have him stealing campaign signs of local candidates in my area. Most of the designs are made up. What made the work worth it, is I get to show how ridiculously thorough Psycho is, taking everyone's sign no matter how small or unrelated the campaign is.

I'm a reporter in my day job and accusations of candidates stealing each other's signs is fairly common. So now you know, if campaign signs go missing, it wasn't a prank or calculated political tactic. It's just Psychoboy being thorough. No real campaign signs were harmed in the making of this comic.

So with page six out of the way, I have only two pages to go! I'm going to try to draw, ink and color page seven this weekend. Can I do it in 48 hours? We'll see. Wish me luck!